5. Discussion and Conclusion
The aim of this study was to examine the validity of speeded cloze elide
test as a measure of overall proficiency in English as a second language
among Iranian EFL learners. One hundred and fifty B.A students of
English were selected using convenience sampling. Five cloze-elide
passages along with two multiple-choice cloze passages, four C-Test
passages and a reading comprehension passage containing 12
multiple-choice items were administered to the participants.
The correlations between speeded cloze elide and the criterion measures
were strong and significant. If we consider multiple-choice cloze test
and C-Test as valid measures of overall language proficiency with the
high correlation that is observed between cloze elide and these measures
the validity of speeded cloze elide as a measure of foreign language
general proficiency is supported. Furthermore, the cloze elide has a
strong correlation with the reading comprehension test which is evidence
that the speeded cloze elide is also a valid measure of reading
comprehension. The criterion measures are also strongly correlated. The
high correlations between the multiple-choice cloze test and the C-Test
(r =.80, p <.01, n =150) indicates that
these two tests of reduced redundancy which have very similar structures
measure the same constructs. The strong correlations between the C-Test
and the reading comprehension test (r =.83,p <.01, n =150) and the multiple-choice cloze test
and the reading comprehension (r =.81, p <.01,n =150) supports their validity as measures of reading
comprehension with the C-Test being a slightly better measure of reading
comprehension.
The correlation between the C-Test and reading comprehension was
slightly higher than the correlation between reading and the other two
tests. These findings suggest that the C-Test is a better measure of
reading than multiple-choice cloze and cloze elide.
Principal components analysis showed that all the variables, i.e.,
speeded cloze elide passages, multiple-choice cloze passages, C-Test
passages, and the reading comprehension passage, loaded on a single
factor with very strong loadings. This means that all the variables
measure a single dimension. Since all the variables strongly load on a
single factor and multiple-choice cloze test and C-Test are established
measures of general language proficiency the validity of the speeded
cloze elide as a measure of overall second language proficiency is also
supported.
The results of the present study indicated that speeded cloze-elide test
is an authentic measurement tool to assess the overall foreign language
proficiency. When time constraints were imposed, the differences of
examinees became more obvious in the speeded cloze-elide test. It was
found to be easy to administer, construct and time efficient. It is
recommended that further research considers the general language
proficiency test, anxiety and intelligence of the learners.
Furtherrmore, analysis of the speeded cloze elide test with item
response theory models for timed tests like the Rasch Poisson model
(Baghaei & Doebler, 2018; Jansen, 19) is recommended.